Mini taco oven

A food production system for creating folded par-baked dough units for frying comprising;

• a sheeter for continuously creating a succession of flat raw dough units of desired first shape;
• a discharge conveyor for discharging the raw dough units from the sheeter;
• and
• an oven for creating the folded par-baked dough units for frying by reshaping the raw dough units into a second shape that is non-flat and par-baking them while they are moved through the oven in that second shape, the oven comprising:
• a frame with a longitudinal oven axis and a heating space, the oven located adjacent to the discharge conveyor;
• a hanging conveyor having an elongated configuration with a longitudinal conveyor axis that is parallel with the longitudinal oven axis and located at least partially within the heating space of the oven, the hanging conveyor having an input end and a discharge end, a top dough carrying side for carrying raw dough units from the input end to the discharge end, and a bottom return side, the hanging conveyor receiving raw dough units that are discharged by the discharge conveyor, the hanging conveyor being narrower than the raw dough units such that raw dough units received by the hanging conveyor fold down on either side thereof to form folded dough units, and the top dough carrying side of the hanging conveyor moving within the heating space of the oven in parallel with the longitudinal conveyor axis and longitudinal oven axis;
• a motor for driving the hanging conveyor;
• a plurality of cross-burners that each have an elongated configuration with a longitudinal cross-burner axis that is non-parallel with the longitudinal oven axis, are located below the bottom return side of the hanging conveyor, and pre-heat the hanging conveyor for transferring shape-setting heat from the hanging conveyor to the folded dough units that are carried by the hanging conveyor;
• and
• a plurality of longitudinal shape-setting side burners that each have a longitudinal shape-setting side burner axis that is parallel with the longitudinal oven axis and longitudinal conveyor axis and are located below a horizontal plane containing the top dough carrying side of the hanging conveyor and above a horizontal plane containing the bottom return side of the hanging conveyor and in parallel with and spaced laterally to either side of the top dough carrying side of the hanging conveyor to be horizontally displaced from and not directly beneath the top dough carrying side of the hanging conveyor and the folded dough units carried thereby and not directed beneath downward edges of the folded dough units, for providing further shape-setting heat to the folded dough units that are carried by hanging conveyor without impinging directly onto the downward edges of the folded dough units, the hanging conveyor moving the folded dough units from the input end to the discharge end, within the oven, to form the folded par-baked dough units.